I’ve been meaning to sit down and write some entries on all sorts of issues, but that requires some time and a functional brain. Neither of which I have at the moment.

I spent a few days at a summer cabin with the family. It was very noisy and mad…and nice. Since then I’ve been sleeping too much and spending my waking hours revising for two make up exams I have to take and doing homework for the Academic English course.

To make up for it I’ll provide some links:

KRXQ Sacramento radio hosts encourage violence against transgender children, by Michael Rowe. There are not words for how disgusted I am. Transgender people need understanding, care and support. Especially transgender children. They face too much abuse as it is. We should be working on putting an end to it, not encouraging more. Thankfully due to the letter writing powers of the masses many of the companies have pulled their advertisements from the show.

Silence is the enemy, says Sheril Kirshenbaum, and I agree. This is one of the issues I meant to write so much more about. We can not stay silent any more. There are so many women and children being raped and abused and the only way to bring about some change is to talk about it. Discuss it. Get the information out there and demand change.

An International Rescue Committee survey suggests 12 percent of girls aged 17 and under acknowledged having been sexually abused in some way over the previous 18 months. Further, of the 275 new sexual violence cases treated Jan-April by Doctors Without Borders, 28 percent involve children aged 4 or younger, and 33 percent involve children aged 5 through 12. That’s 61% age 12 or under. We read about their plight and see the figures, but it’s so easy to feel helpless to act in isolation. But these are not statistics, they are girls. Together we can do more. Mass rape persists because of inertia so let’s create momentum.

The next time someone mentions this, especially when they mention the rape of infants, don’t say you don’t want to hear it. You need to hear it. Get involved, spread the word.